3/22/12020 – Ao's Wings

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Man, does it feel good to be on spring break.

First off, good news. My arm is finally healed! Yeah, the bite mark kind of shows, but I'll tell everyone from school I survived from a shark attack. No biggie.

Also, even more great news. Uncle Dom and Aunt Anemone got us on a private beach resort, far away from the main boardwalk and the other hotels so mom can spread her wings and the rest of us can enjoy the privacy.

Okay. Make that mom AND Ao. Damn, he's really gonna let those puppies out for the whole trip.

You know, I've never mentioned that my little brother had wings before. I haven't really talked a lot about him for a while aside from the Maria incident (skank) since I've been busy with other shenanigans like getting my ref board fixed and working on the stupid essay that I won't shut the fuck up about. But what the hell. We're on spring break, it's the middle of the night, my brain's kind of dead right now from looking up places to go, and I can't sleep for shit.

So here we go… bedtime story on how little Adroc got his wings.

When I was a kid, I always wanted to have wings like mom. I remember the weekends when she used to pick me and my little brother up and fly us around the house or the hillside park. And man, it was magical. Ever hear kids in school talk about how their moms being amazing ref-boarders, singers, inventors, or doctors? Or how they have weird talents like limbo skating (because that's a thing, apparently), extreme pen twirling, being a soda balancing wizard, or being able to do yoga on ice while balancing a fishbowl own your nose?

Well, my mom can fly. Your argument is invalid.

That's why it was such a huge bummer when both of us got big and mom couldn't carry us anymore. That, and she started getting real busy with work in the garage, and she didn't want to get everyone's attention. Hell, if I had wings, I'd be skipping the bus going to school. Maybe go around the world if I wanted to. You could also say that's one reason why I got started with ref-boarding: it feels great to be in the air without a care in the world, you know? No thinking about school or other responsibilities. Just you, your board, and the clear skies.

When mom quit flying, I thought to myself "hey, maybe it's not the end of the world." Maybe when I get older, I might grow myself a pair of my own wings and fly on my own. Yeah, maybe I'd ditch my board, but I don't have to worry about falling onto the ground. And besides, what better trade-off than to have all the freedom to fly wherever whenever, right?

Turns out, this was never the case for me. Instead of me getting a pair of wings like mom, it was Ao instead.

I was 8 when it happened. I was trying to teach him how to ref and right when he was trying to get himself steady on the board, he slipped off and fell. And right when I was about to catch him, his wings suddenly sprouted from his back. He fell, but he was more in pain from the wings he grew out than from the fall itself. Right after I took him to the house, we all went to Dr. Mischa's to see what the hell happened. Turns out he was supposed to grow them right when he hits puberty, but for some reason the wings sprouted earlier than expected. My guess is that the fall triggered them early. I dunno. I remember Ao feeling nervous about them, but mom and dad told him everything was going to be fine.

I admit. At the time I couldn't help but feel jealous about it. I mean… unbelievable. He just turned 7 and he already got his wings! When I was 7, I had a small pizza party with Gidget and Moondoggie! And Gekkostate stickers from them just because they almost forgot about it! Plus, he could barely fly on a ref-board! To make matters worse, everyone in the family was raving about it. I would see mom helping him practice how to control them. Like, how to retract them or make them flap. Maurice, Maeter, and Linck all thought his wings looked great on him, and Gramps thought the wings were gonna help him get chicks soon because he could fly now.

The day I lost my shit was when I was practicing my cut-backs one day. It was just one of those days when I wasn't feeling it; my form was getting sloppier, and I was using Ao's crappy old board since my dad was repairing mine's. Right when I was about to do another cut-back, I immediately fell off my board and thought I was going to hit my head. All of a sudden, I felt someone catch me in mid-air, and I looked to see Ao flying for the first time. Yeah, it looked like he caught me from like a meter off the ground, but still… I saw him use finally his wings, and at that point I just couldn't take it anymore.

After that, I pushed him aside and threw a fit by smashing his board and locking myself in my room. I thought to myself that he didn't need the damn thing. He has his own fucking wings to do the flying all by himself. Ao told mom what happened, and she tried to talk to me about it. When I let her in, I started venting to her about why I wasn't getting wings like her and Ao, and why I wasn't getting all the attention like he was at the time. Besides, all I'm really good for is ref-boarding… and I felt like that wasn't enough for them. I didn't ask for mom to get back to flying; I expected her to understand.

And then she hugged me tight and didn't let go. She told me I would always be her baby girl no matter what, no matter if I had wings or not, and that she loved me as much as Maurice, Linck, Maeter, and Ao. You know, I don't know what it is about mom, but she's one of the nicest people you will ever meet. Shocking, really, for all the crazy shit I've done to piss her off. But if you get on her good side, you could talk to her about anything and she'll always be a shoulder to lean on. Aside from dad, of course. Which boggles me whenever I hear Gidget and Moondoggie talk about her being so aloof from everyone back in the Gekkostate days.

While I was hugging mom and crying it out, I saw Ao standing by the door looking sad. He retracted his wings and walked away. And… well, after what happened, Ao and I didn't talk to each other in a while. When we did, it was kind of awkward because we both felt guilty in our own way. I felt like I was the reason he stopped using his wings for a while, and I felt bad because I hurt his feelings on that day. All because I was being a selfish asshole.

Around August, we all took a vacation to Nimbus. The town wasn't as big as it is now and there weren't a lot of people back then, but it was still booming since the boardwalk was almost finished and other buildings were being built. We were at the main beach and it was the first time I found out about surfing. Apparently, surfing was the precursor to ref-boarding, since there weren't trapar waves around the pre-Exodus era; people rode the water as waves, and I hear in some places those waves can be 5 or 6 meters in height. I saw people riding the waves, and I figured why the hell not. Just like ref-boarding, right? I asked Ao if he wanted to join, but he was still pretty depressed about what happened. Since we were at the beach, he figured it was okay to spread his wings out. Mom was fine with it, but she didn't spread hers out because she didn't want the attention.

Needless to say, surfing felt different from ref-boarding, but oh man was it fun. Took me a while to figure out how to get to the waves or get my balance right, but I think I got the basics down. I was no pro, but at least I was getting into it step-by-step.

Damn it, I'm rambling again. Back on topic.

When I was about to go for another run, Ao was getting picked on by a bunch of assholes because of his wings. I overheard them calling him names like "butterfly boy" and some other stuff I don't remember. Mom and dad came through and shooed them away, but Ao started running back into our hotel room crying. Mom and dad went after him, and… well, as did I. Yes, I was still a bit jealous about him having wings, but I can't help feel bad about him. Yeah, he could fly without a board, but… I dunno. I guess when you've got wings sticking out your back, you're sure as hell bound to attract a lot of unwanted attention.

I threw away my rental and ran back to the hotel room, only to find Ao locking himself in the bathroom. Everyone tried to reason with him, but he couldn't stop calling himself a freak show and a monster. At that point, any bad feelings I had towards him just went away. What happened earlier reminded me that even if he had something that I didn't have, we're still one and the same. There's only a handful of us in the world, if you count mom and Aunt Anemone, so gotta stick together no matter what.

So, I stepped in and tried to reason with him… because, y'know. It was the right thing to do. I told him I was sorry for being a jealous asshole, and for being obsessed with wanting wings instead of looking out for him. I told him I was proud he grew them out, because he could fly wherever he wanted, and it looked good on him. And I told him it didn't matter if he had them or not because he was still my little brother. Well… thankfully, it worked. He got out of the bathroom, and both of us hugged it out for a while.

Afterwards, dad suggested a place far away from the main beach, where Ao could spread his wings and fly without worrying about other people looking at him weird. We went there after lunch, and I gotta say… that place was much better than the boardwalk. Only a handful of people were there, but they were far away from us to even bother with. And the view was spectacular.

I convinced Ao to give surfing a try and we rented out a couple of surfboards for the hell of it. Before we got our feet wet, we stood there for a while and I told him I was sorry again about what happened earlier. He said it was fine, but he told me he wasn't going to use his wings anymore since he thought they were pointless and didn't see him flying with them any time soon. He much preferred to learn how to ref instead of flying around looking like a butterfly.

Then we heard someone taking a picture, and it was Maurice messing around with the camera. At the time, Ao was pissed at Maurice for taking a shot of him with his wings out. And he was even more pissed when it made the ray=out cover (he's still mad about it to this day). But for me… it was always a great shot. Yeah, it's embarrassing when other people bring it up, but at least it's a nice memento of something I did right for once.

Do I still get jealous about Ao's wings? Eh, sometimes... but, not really. As much as I still miss those days where mom took us flying, I can always make do with my ref-board. And I don't need the extra attention, so I totally understand what mom feels. But a part of me still wants to know what it's like to have my own pair of wings… minus the sprouting part. Ugh.

You know, mom's lucky to have someone like dad accept her for what she is. Must be hard back then to have a partner who's the literal emissary of the planet, but I'm glad they made it through everything just fine. I hope Ao gets lucky and finds someone down the road who'll treat him the way dad treats mom. He deserves it more than I do.

Alright, I'm beat. Let's see what Uncle Dom and Aunt Anemone have in store for us tomorrow.

But first, I hope I got the right swimwear… Maeter's right. My boobs are kind of big for my age. Hope what I got from the store isn't too tight or small on me, and I hope my boobs stay this way for the rest of my life because I'm not planning on getting back pain when I get old.

Also, I wonder if the vending machine is still open…

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